People invariably fail to plan due to misconceptions about the process. As mentioned above, some people view estate planning as “death planning;” an event about which few people want to think. It’s hard for most of us to face our mortality and the brevity of life.

Others believe that planning is complex and expensive. They fear they’ll have to give up control, or that there lifestyle and income stream will be disrupted. Because they have busy schedules and lives, estate planning is simply not a priority.

Some fail to plan because they don’t know about the benefits. They’re unaware of all that can be accomplished with proper planning, or they just don’t care what happens after they die, knowing they will not be around to witness any chaos that may result from the failure to plan.

Finally, there are many who understand the benefits of planning and know that they should plan, but who simply procrastinate. People fail to do estate planning for the same reason so many college term papers are written the night before they are due—it seems to be human nature to put “unpleasant” things off until the last minute. Of course, the problem is that no one really knows when “the last minute” will arrive.